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Saturday, 16 July 2011

What I Love About #fridayflash

You may have heard of #fridayflash, but if not, it's a hashtag used on Twitter by people who post flash fiction on or before a Friday, for others to read and comment on. But it's much more than that. Founded by Jon Strother, it's a community, a network, and also an amazing way to feel a part of something great.

When I first realised that I actually enjoyed writing flash fiction, it was a mystery to me as I hadn't even really heard of the term "flash fiction" before the end of 2009. But when I discovered #fridayflash via Twitter, I started posting flash fiction on my blog as regularly as I could, and reading flashes by other people also as often as I could.

Now #fridayflash is always at the back of my mind. If I have something to post, I do, and if I don't, I have come to realise it's not a problem. In summary, these are the things I love about #fridayflash:

The welcome for debut stories in the #fridayflash community is always there. I certainly didn't feel like The New Girl for very long.

You can dip in and out - there is no pressure to post every week. Even after a long absence, when you post again you still feel like a part of the community.

As long as you enter your details in The Fridayflash Collector, and link to it on Twitter, you will find you have a steady stream of readers for your flashes.

The community as a whole is very helpful and many of the writers who are involved will offer constructive criticism which will help you to improve your writing style.

Sometimes you will write a flash for #fridayflash and then later you can use it for something else, for example someone may post a call for submissions which allows previously blogged stories. This was how I had my first ever flash story published in 50 Stories for Pakistan.

If you are a writer of flash fiction, or even if you have never written any before and want to give it a try, I recommend joining in with #fridayflash. It has definitely had a massive impact on my writing, and that is all thanks to the lovely community of writers and readers that make #fridayflash the wonderful thing that it is today.

You can read my #fridayflash stories by clicking on the #fridayflash label in the panel on the right of my blog.

Jon, seeing yours made me realise I failed to mention you in my post. I am really sorry, that was so negligent of me. I can only claim I wrote it on a weekend day while being shouted at by 3 children. I have edited to add a mention now.